E355
Victoria Chang, Jessica Jackley, Garth Saloner
2009
This case study tells the story of Shona McDonald, founder and managing director of South African company, Shonaquip. The company designed, manufactured, and supplied mobility equipment, as well as augmentative and alternative communication devices for…
CG16
David Larcker, Brian Tayan
2009
Berkshire Hathaway is known to many as the investment vehicle of Warren E. Buffett. To some extent, this reputation is well founded, given the investment success that the company has enjoyed under his leadership. Less attention, however, has been paid…
CG17A
David Larcker, Robert Lawson, Brian Tayan
2009
In January 2004, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies announced that it would reduce its estimate of proved oil reserves by nearly 4 billion barrels, or 20 percent. The announcement set off a series of events, including a drop in the company’s share…
IB98
William Barnett, Sara Gaviser Leslie
2009
Nanosolar was founded in 2002 in San Jose, California. Nanosolar’s innovative approach to photovoltaic solar power made it one of the most visible clean technology start-ups, and had attracted high-profile venture capital. The firm had made progress in…
E311
Bethany Coates, Charles Holloway
2009
In March 2007, the staff at TerraPass (TRP), a for-profit carbon offset provider headquartered in San Francisco, decided to take a 30-minute break from the conference room in which they had been meeting. Tom Arnold, the CEO, and Alicia Seiger, the VP of…
GS66
Hau Lee, Maria Shao
2009
In November 2007, a global, cross-functional team at Cisco Systems, Inc. was seeking management approval to start manufacturing a new router, code-named Viking. The team faced a host of challenges in launching the low-cost but powerful router for…
E325
John Glynn Jr., Claire Magat, Peter Ziebelman
2009
John Dean and Danny Lui began raising their first fund as Startup Capital Ventures (SCV), a small venture capital firm in 2005. They made a soft commitment to invest 15-20% of their first $25MM fund in China. They made their first Chinese investment in…
E372
Annie Adams, Lyn Denend, Sarah Garrett, Whit Keuer, Garth Saloner
2009
Dr. Kalpana Sankar, CEO of Hand in Hand, was exhausted after an all-day meeting of the organization’s executive team at its headquarters in Kanchipuram, India. As she prepared for a drive to Chennai, she dreaded the traffic she would face. However, the…
GS65
David Hoyt, Hau Lee, Michael Marks
2009
Zappos was founded in 1999, during the Internet boom, to sell shoes online. The company’s founding premise was to provide the ultimate in selection to its customers—all brands, styles, sizes, and colors. Zappos organized all aspects of its business…
CG15
David Larcker, Brian Tayan
2009
In 2003, the board of directors of GDF decided to initiate a thorough search process to replace its existing CEO. GDF Corp was a leader in the telecommunications industry, offering network equipment and enterprise solutions to a broad range of customers…
CG17B
David Larcker, Robert Lawson, Brian Tayan
2009
Following the revelation that the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies had overstated its proved oil reserves by over 4 billion barrels, company officials announced dramatic changes to the company’s organizational structure and governance system. These…
GS67
Hau Lee, Maria Shao
2009
The European Recycling Platform was the only pan-European recycling organization created in response to the European Union’s groundbreaking directive to promote recycling of electronic waste. Braun, Electrolux, Hewlett-Packard and Sony established ERP in…
HR33
Gili Elkin, Hayagreeva Rao
2008
In 1997, Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California, established The Edible Schoolyard program at a local middle school. In this program, children who had never been outside the city prepared their own food, using fresh…
E286
Katherine Bose, Robert Chess, Peter Reiss
2008
The protagonist (“Howard Glass”) is a recent GSB graduate (2007) heading up a biomedical device start-up focused on the gastric bypass market. The case tracks Glass and team from the team formation and idea generation phases through the company’s first 6…
OB68
Janel Forde, Macharva Lucas, Myra Strober
2008
This case examines the choices facing a dual career household at a major decision point in their careers. Protagonist Lisa Johnson, a young married career woman, is carefully considering the advantages and disadvantages of uprooting her family, which…
EM4
Victoria Chang, William Guttentag, Roderick Kramer
2008
Ron Meyer, 63, is the president and COO of Universal Studios, one of the “Big Six” movie studios. He oversees Universal Pictures, Focus Features (a smaller-budget, indie-type film studio) and Universal Theme Parks & Resorts. Universal Studios’ parent…
L13
David Hoyt, Hayagreeva Rao
2008
In December 2004, Donald Berwick, MD, president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), challenged U.S. hospitals to reduce unnecessary deaths by 100,000 within the following 18 months. By the end of this 18 month period, over 3,100…
E322
Bethany Coates, H. Grousbeck
2008
In April 2007, Kristin Richmond laced up her sneakers and began the four mile run to Kirsten Tobey’s house. It was a Saturday morning, but the two co-founders of Revolution Foods (RevFoods), a provider of healthy meals and nutrition education to schools…
E267(B)
Mark Leslie, Katherine Bose
2008
After significant changes in management, strategic direction and product focus, XenSource, a virtualization software start-up that relies on open source code, faces key decisions regarding the positioning and packaging of its products, a challenge which…
E286D
Katherine Bose, Robert Chess, Peter Reiss
2008
The protagonist (“Howard Glass”) is a recent GSB graduate (2007) heading up a biomedical device start-up focused on the gastric bypass market. The case tracks Glass and team from the team formation and idea generation phases through the company’s first 6…
OB41
Jeffrey Pfeffer
2008
This note summarizes a lot of the research on communication and language in its relationship to exercising power. Specifically, how language is used to negotiate power, what are the characteristics of effective communication, and how you can tell if…
P65
David Baron
2008
MTN, a very successful South African wireless telephone company, began in 1994 with the founding of the cellular telephone company M-Cell. In May 2008, MTN entered into exclusive discussions with Reliance Communications Ltd., the second largest wireless…
P62
David Baron
2008
Tesco PLC, the largest retailer in the United Kingdom, was pondering India. India’s booming economy and absence of major retail chains provided opportunity to both domestic and foreign firms. Entry of foreign retailers, however, was limited by…
P66
David Baron
2008
The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement negotiated in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations was a major victory for the brand name pharmaceutical companies. Patent life was extended to 20 years in the United States…
